22Sep

PhD candidate, Colin Averill (@colinaverill) of the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin, spent some time with us to talk about his research and recenetly published article in Nature. Colin studies carbon cycling and its interaction with ecology to understand how trees and decomposing bacteria and fungi are integral parts of this cycle. He spoke to us about his research with mycorrhiza, a fungi that is symbiotic with the roots of trees, and how they can potentially mediate competition between plants and decomposers that are important to carbon and nitrogen cycling. Join us for this episode and learn about carbon cycling, anthropogenic CO2, and how various fungi and bacteria that dwell in soil can factor into climate change and atmospheric CO2 concentrations!